Currently, the inmate population is close to 29,000, and that's well over the maximum number of prisoners allowed.

MDC's Chief Ramon Rustin said they're hoping to be able to put close to 500 nonviolent offenders into the community custody program.

"We currently have 200 out in the streets, so it will be an increase of up to 300 inmates," Rustin said. "This has been a bad year for us, and we're really overcrowded."

The pods at the jail are bursting at the seams, and under a federal lawsuit filed in 1994, the number of inmates must be reduced.

"I can't control who comes into the jail and who gets released from the jail, that's all the courts," said Rustin.

Rustin said he hopes he can soon control the number of inmates he houses. The jail is currently working with the courts to put those nonviolent offenders in halfway homes, work release and the community custody program, known as CCP.

On Tuesday, county commissioners voted that MDC can spend more than a $1 million on the program meant to help cut down on the jail's overcrowding problem.

"These are low level kind of offenders, low risk," Rustin said. "We have a new assessment tool, and everyone who goes into the program will be assessed."

Rustin said the program will help drop MDC's population much closer to capacity, which is just over 2,200 inmates.

He also said the ankle bracelets will save taxpayers money. It costs about $10 a day for a GPS ankle device, while it costs about $70 a day to house an inmate.

"We're taking advantage of the technology, so we'll be able to track these offenders wherever they go in the community," Rustin said. "These are nonviolent types of offenders. They'll be heavily supervised while in the community, so I don't think the public needs to be alarmed that again we're releasing people who are potentially violent."

MDC leaders said they'll be able to pay for the bracelets without increasing the jail's budget.

Rustin said the jail also has new computer software that gives them and the courts solid profiles on each inmate, and they'll be looking at those with mental health and substance abuse problems as candidates for programs outside the walls of MDC.

Rustin said if this doesn't work, they may have to look at a worst-case scenario.

"If the judges decide they don't see enough progress, the county I think won't have any option but to send inmates out of county," said Rustin.

If the county has to ship hundreds of inmates to another state jail, Rustin said it could end up costing the taxpayers between $12 million and $18 million.